1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer graphics data processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern computer graphics utilizes a variety of techniques for capturing/defining scenes and rendering the scenes on an electronic display device. One such technique involves defining the scene in terms of a number of geometric primitives, where the geometric primitive represents a particular polygonal shape. For example, the geometric primitive can be three-sided (triangular), four-sided (quadrilateral), five-sided (pentagonal), six-sided (hexagonal), etc. Each geometric primitive used to define the scene is characterized by its vertices. To represent its respective portion of the scene, each geometric primitive can be processed to display particular visual effects within a region defined its boundaries.
Each of the number of geometric primitives defining the scene can be translated into a corresponding set of pixel data to be used in rendering the scene image on the electronic display device. It is common for scenes in computer graphics to be defined by large numbers of geometric primitives. Consequently, defining and rendering the geometric primitives of a scene can include processing large amounts of data, e.g., vertex data. Therefore, a continuing need exists to improve computer graphics technology as it applies to defining and rendering scenes using geometric primitives.